Well, Apple has a large office/warehouse complex they set up for Project Titan. And they bought a rural test track that was unused by one of the big 3 several years ago. Further, you can build a car from scratch in a suitably-sized and equipped garage (do you not watch any of the car shows on TV?). My brother and I many years ago did a bunch of fiberglass work in our garage in our attempt to turn a VW Beetle into a taller VW Karmann Ghia (approximately). I won't do any glass work ever again, but many things are doable. Load the vehicle onto a truck, drive over to the track at night, and go. There are also several race tracks that would probably allow Apple the privacy they crave for testing. All in all, not an issue.
That's all fine and dandy but the California DMV (and other transportation agencies) will not authorize Apple nor any other company to freely operate/sell/etc. autonomous vehicles on public roads.
The companies need to fully demonstrate that their vehicle technology can operate safely in the wide variety of operational environments and situations that are encountered in the real world.
Apple cannot go from test track to showroom.
The California DMV issues provisional testing permits to any company developing autonomous vehicles designed for public roads. Those companies are required to file regular reports on number of vehicles, miles driven, number of incidents of driver intervention, et cetera ad nauseam. You can download these reports yourself and review them.
Apple has not demonstrated a sufficiently broad and long test drive program in the State of California. By contrast, Alphabet's Waymo and Nuro have both extensive test programs.
Today, the California DMV gave provisional permission to Nuro to conduct commercial deliveries.
With a first-of-its kind permit from the DMV, tech company Nuro can now operate its driverless vehicles for commercial purposes and make deliveries to the public -- a service it plans to launch in 2021.
www.mv-voice.com
Note that this isn't some free for all as many of the slower witted commenters seem to imagine. There are a huge number of restrictions include limited cities of operation, actual streets of operation, time, weather, driving conditions, maximum vehicle speed, etc.
Those who said "it'll never happen" are wrong. It's here. Not widespread, maybe not in your town, but it's no longer a hazy vision of the future.
And if it didn't happen first in Mountain View, CA it would happen somewhere else in the near future. The majority of the autonomous vehicle engineering talent in the USA works in just a couple of Silicon Valley cities. It is unsurprising that Nuro is taking its first steps as a commercial autonomous delivery service there.
If you live in some flyover state this all sounds like science fiction but I seen these prototypes on local roads every day for years. And these vehicles are WAY safer than some snot-nosed teenager or smartphone-distracted anybody behind the wheel, that's for damned sure.